Satara's Story

Satara’s journey began at a time when South Africa’s rhino poaching crisis had reached its devastating peak. In 2014 alone, 1,215 rhinos were killed. Amid this crisis, South African National Parks (SANParks) made a pivotal and compassionate decision for the future of Kruger’s rhinos: to rescue and rehabilitate orphaned calves rather than leave them as victims of poaching.

For the first time, SANParks entered into a Memorandum of Agreement with Care for Wild Rhino Sanctuary, entrusting Petronel Nieuwoudt and her team with the rehabilitation, rewilding, and long-term care of Kruger’s injured and orphaned rhinos. It was a partnership built on trust, urgency, and a shared determination to give these animals a future.

On 11 March 2014, that commitment became real when a tiny seven-month-old calf was found standing beside her poached mother in Kruger National Park. She was stabilised in the field by veterinary teams and rangers, placed on life-support drips, and carefully prepared for transport. Petronel travelled to collect her, becoming part of the first-ever rescue of its kind from Kruger. That calf was given the name Satara, ensuring she would always remain connected to the place she came from.

At the time, no one could have known she would become the first of more than 135 rhinos to pass through Care for Wild’s care. She was the beginning of something far greater than a single rescue, she was the start of a long-term conservation journey that would span more than a decade.

Years of rehabilitation, patience, and rewilding followed. Satara grew from a vulnerable orphan into a strong, confident female rhino, eventually returning to a protected natural landscape where she could live more freely while still being carefully monitored and safeguarded.